Like when I returned from my month-long Europe trip in May, I don’t even know where to begin today: there’s just too much to unpack. But I’ll try. Although many have come to cherish Vincent Couche for his long-aged champagnes (2002 is the next release!), today we have something much, much different in store for you. Something that defies Burgundy tradition while simultaneously transcending it. Couche, being the winemaking wizard, tradition-bending genius, and veritable vine whisperer that he is, has just unveiled a painfully limited pair of singular creations—not from Champagne, mind you, but Burgundy.
Unbeknownst to us until recently, Vincent has also been tirelessly toiling in Molesme, an obscure Bourgogne commune bordering the southern tip of Champagne. This is where he’srunning a still-wine experiment of “mad scientist” proportions with the guidance of Claude Bourguignon, a secret-weapon soil expert who’s lent his expertise to French icons like DRC, Leflaive, Dujac, Selosse, Chave, and Dagueneau. So, after all this buildup…what exactly is on offer today? A 2019 Bourgogne Chardonnay. But it’d be a grave mistake to simply describe it as such. This full-on biodynamic white Burgundy aged in a combination of amphora and oak for two years, and was bottled without ever seeing a dose of sulfur. This is as pure, profound, and texturally stunning as it gets. 150 cases were made for the entire world. Six-bottle max.
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NOTE: Keep holding onto your seats because Vincent Couche’s second Burgundy will be hitting your inbox this afternoon, and it’s far more perplexing and mystifying.
It was Vincent Couche’s mother who inspired his passion for vineyard work and maintaining a natural, chemical-free ecosystem. As such, he has spent every waking hour over the past two decades ensuring his wines are free of additives. Because he refuses unnatural methods at every step of the process—from eschewing “-cides” to banning chaptalization and sulfur during fermentation to using gravity only to transfer his wine—Vincent Couche is one of the principal leaders in the organic, “natural” movement.
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Given that Vincent Couche’s home base is located in Champagne’s southerly village of Buxeuil, it makes sense that his always wandering and curious mind would take him outside Champagne’s confines and into the commune of Molesme. Historically a gold mine for Crémant de Bourgogne, Vincent’s vision was to forgo the bubbles and create a still wine. So, he purchased a small plot and immediately began converting it into biodynamic with the assistance of Claude Bourguignon. Surrounded entirely by unspoiled forests, Vincent co-planted fruit and nut trees amongst his vines. But he went even further by trellising them together—as high as 30 feet—to create natural corridors for fauna to flow through his parcels. All of this serves to deepen biodiversity.
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Zero chemicals are used throughout the growing season and his family manually harvests at generous ripeness levels since adding sugar to the must would be viewed as sacrilege to him. Following a long, unassisted fermentation, the resulting wine continued aging in a combination of French oak barrels and clay amphoras for two full years. It was bottled without fining, filtration, or any addition of sulfur.
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If you consider yourself a devotée of classic and ruggedly traditional Burgundy, perhaps this 2019 Bourgogne is not for you. Unless, that is, you’re willing to explore terra incognita. There are rich, toasty aromas to the nose, a suppleness to the broadly textured palate, and a powerful mineral feel to the finish—like a wild ménage à trois between Sonoma Coast, Meursault, and the Jura. The wine pours a deep yellow and spills out raw hazelnut, apricot, bruised yellow pear and peach, wet rock, toast, drawn butter, lees, and light baking spice. The medium-bodied palate is texturally soft and layered with gobs of mature yellow fruit, nuts, and spice commingling on a mellow bed of crushed stone. I suggest a brief 15-minute decant before serving around 55 degrees (too cold will hide its nuances) and enjoying over two evenings. You’ll never have anything else like this!
